The Association Between Insomnia and Increased Future Cardiovascular Events: A Nationwide Population-Based Study.

OBJECTIVES: Insomnia may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), but the reported magnitude of the associations between sleep characteristics and CVD is inconsistent. We investigated the association between insomnia and the risk of developing acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and/or stroke by using a nationwide, population-based cohort database in Taiwan. METHODS: The analyses were conducted using information from a random sample of 1 million people enrolled in the nationally representative Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. A total of 44,080 individuals who were 20 years or older, including 22,040 people who had diagnosis of insomnia during the study period and an age-, sex-, comorbidity-matched group of 22,040 people without insomnia, were enrolled in our study. The study end points were the occurrence of cardiovascular events including AMI or stroke during follow-up. RESULTS: During a 10-year follow-up, 302 AMI events and 1049 stroke events were identified. The insomnia group had a higher incidence of AMI (2.25 versus 1.08 per 1000 person-years) and stroke (8.01 versus 3.69 per 1000 person-years, p < .001). Cox proportional hazard regression model analysis showed that insomnia was independently associated with a higher risk of future AMI (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.68, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.31-2.16, p < .001), stroke (HR = 1.85, 95% CI = 1.62-2.12, p < .001), and the composite event index (HR = 1.81, 95% CI = 1.61-2.05, p < .001), after adjusting for age, sex, and comorbidities. CONCLUSIONS: Insomnia is associated with an increased risk of future cardiovascular events.

Angiotensin-receptor blockers and risk of Alzheimer's disease in hypertension population--a nationwide cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Although emerging evidence shows angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs) may have a beneficial effect against Alzheimer's disease (AD), the association is not consistent. We investigated the association between ARB use and the risk of development of AD using a nationwide, population-based cohort database in Taiwan. METHODS AND RESULTS: In total, 16,426 newly diagnosed hypertensive patients who were administered ARB without a previous diagnosis of AD were identified from the Taiwan National Health Insurance database. The comparison group consisted of hypertensive patients who did not receive ARB, and were matched to exposed individuals using propensity score by enrolled time, age, sex, and comorbidities. During an average of 5.24 ± 2.01 years of follow-up, a total of 1,031 cases (3.13%) of new AD occurred. The log-rank test showed no significant difference in the AD occurrence rate between subjects exposed to ARBs and non-exposed controls [488 (2.97%) vs. 543 (3.29%), P=0.221]. After adjusting for age, sex, comorbidities, and medications, only advanced age [hazard ratio (HR) 1.12, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.12-1.13, P<0.001), female sex (HR 1.18, 95% CI 1.04-1.33, P=0.011), diabetes (HR 1.53, 95% CI 1.31-1.79, P<0.001), but not ARB (HR 1.08, 95% CI 0.96-1.22, P=0.222) were independently associated with AD development. CONCLUSIONS: The use of ARB was not significantly associated with a reduction of risk of AD in Asian patients with essential hypertension.